The New Nation - Internet Edition

BUSINESS REPORTER

The government has increased the selling prices of urea and Muriate of Potash (MOP) by more than 200 per cent to ease pressure on the government' s subsidy system.

The selling price of per ton of urea fertiliser has been increased to Tk 10,000 from Tk 4,800.

The new price for MOP is Tk 50,000 per ton as against the previous price of Tk 19,500 per ton.

The upward price adjustment of fertilisers came for the first time since 1996 and just a day after the announcement of national budget for the fiscal 2008-09 beginning on July 1.

An official of the Ministry of Industry said the upward price adjustment of fertilisers will lessen the pressure on the government on account of subsidy.

In the outgoing fiscal, the estimated subsidy on fertiliser will be more than Tk 40 billion from the originally projected Tk 22 billion due to the growing mismatch between selling and procurement prices.

The country's urea and MoP consumption has increased substantially since 2004 following wider cultivation of high yielding varieties and hybrid rice.

The government has planned to import around 1.1 million tons of urea to meet the projected demand of 2.85 million tons in the new fiscal.